How well are U.S. Newspapers Using Facebook

The Bivings Group of the Facebook presence of the 100 newspapers in the US with the largest print circulation.

Most Popular Regional & National Newspapers on Facebook

Facebook Fans: 5697

Newspaper Fans Circulation Fan/Circulation Ratio

Newspaper Fans Circulation Fan/Circulation Ratio

Washington Post 100589 545345 0.18445021

Chicago Tribune 23397 441508 0.052993377

Arizona Republic 19830 308973 0.064180365

Denver Post 36557 309863 0.117977945

San Jose Mercury News 8423 477592 0.017636393

New York Times 1001502 876638 1.142435076

Los Angeles Times 28835 600449 0.048022397

Cleveland Plain Dealer 6962 252608 0.027560489

USA Today 38578 1830594 0.021074034

Wall Street Journal 176896 2061142 0.085824266

Seattle Times Social Statistics Circulation:Weekday readership (5 weekday issues):

1,021,900 adults

Competitor’s Best Practices:

Newspaper Social Fact Highlights Best Practices

Washington Post Top of List – Effective audience engagement

Averages 41 likes and 55 comments for every post on it’s fan page wall

• Two custom tabs (Capital Hill & Stories) Editors use • HootSuite to schedule posts

The Chicago Tribune

Ranked 9th in the US in terms of circulation, but is #2 for Facebook engagement

• Custom Welcome landing page• Specific FB newspaper sub sections pages. • Active Discussion tab

The Arizona Republic

The Arizona republic is ranked 3rd on this list despite having a 40% lower circulation than the first-ranked Washington Post.

Collaboration with AZcentral.com

San Jose Mercury News

8th in circulation within the US, but 5th on this list due to its consistently active Facebook fans.

• The fan page will feature simple status updates (sans links) • Variety in fan communication (Ask the readers questions or just wish them a good morning).

Newspaper Success Strategies for Facebook

Local & Information Apps Users

Local App Users are not more interested in news but they use technology more avidly

References:

Source: http://www.bivingsreport.com/2010/2010-best-us-newspaper-facebook-fan-pages/

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Local-mobile-news/Part-1/Local-news-apps.aspx